A Cold Day for Murder

The setting was certainly a welcome respite from a harsh Australian summer and its depiction is one of the standout features of the book. Stabenow lets us know immediately where we are with her introductory passages

The rending, tearing noise of the snow machine’s engine echoed across the landscape and affronted the arctic peace of that December day. It startled a moose stripping the bark from a stand of spindly birches. It sent a beaver back into her den in a swift-running stream. it woke a bald eagle roosting in the top of a spruce, causing him to glare down on the two men with malevolent eyes. The sky was of that crystal clarity that comes only to lands of the far north in winter, light translucent, wanting cloud and color.

Such show more vivid descriptions are supplemented by several maps (which I always appreciate) so that readers are easily able to imagine the protagonist’s isolated and practical home base and both the town and national park in which the book’s action is centered.

The other element of the novel I found captivating was Kate Shugak. For even though strong female characters are easier to locate in my reading now than they might have been when she first came into being two decades ago there is still something very appealing about the character of Kate. She’s an Aleut Indian who grew up in a small community, moved to Anchorage for study and work then returned to her roots to live on her own after a traumatic event. Most of the time keeps her emotions deeply buried and gets on with being a competent, self-sufficient woman. But occasionally she can’t prevent them bubbling to the surface; as if they are being physically wrenched from inside her. It is these moments that lets readers build a picture of what life is like living in Kate’s skin. With Kate’s memories. And Kate’s anger.

A COLD DAY FOR MURDER is the first of what is now 20 novels in which Kate appears and it’s not difficult to see why it attracted attention, including winning an Edgar Award for best paperback original. Its plot is simple enough – Kate is an ex DA’s investigator but is asked here by her old boss Jack to help investigate two disappearances. A park ranger, who just happens to be the son of a prominent politician, went missing 6 weeks previously and the investigator Jack sent looking for him 4 weeks later also seems to have vanished without a trace. Both men were known to have been in Niniltna, a town Kate knows intimately as many members of her family still live there. Kate is reluctant to become involved but does so, rationalising it with this way when waking from a 3am nightmare

The hauntings would continue no matter what she did, she knew that already. But for a time, perhaps, the ghosts would take on a different shape, mouth different words, stare accusingly for different reasons. It was enough.

Although there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with it, the plot is the weakest element of this very good book. It is at times a bit repetitive and there is a layer of complexity missing but this is largely irrelevant because this is a book about character and place. Both leap off the page. Kate is not the only one with a long memory and demons to wrestle and the different ways this notion plays out make for gripping reading. As does the book’s exploration of Native American politics as they apply to Alaska in general and Kate’s extended family in particular. Her battle with her grandmother over this issue is fascinating.

It is always daunting to realise you’ve really enjoyed a book which now has many, many series companions and I don’t know that I’ll read every one of Kate Shugak’s adventures subsequent to this one but I am sure I will visit with her again. I found the central character and her world intriguing and can’t imagine too many readers wouldn’t be equally engaged. show less

Marguerite Gavin gives this book a fantastic narration. She doesn't attempt to replicate the way Dana Stabenow probably hears Kate Shugak's ruined voice in her head, doesn't attempt to constantly "do" ruined, for which I was grateful for the five and a half hours of the book. I'm sure it's a good read, but it's a great listen.

This takes place in a part of the world I'm just not that familiar with, that weird and wonderful great state of Alaska. I'll admit it – I think my only real "experience" of it is from "Northern Exposure" and [book:To Start a Fire]. It's someplace I think I'd have liked to go – but, after listening to this (and from what little else I know), I don't think I'd be very welcome.

It was a little startling to hear show more the contempt that goes into some characters' discussion of "greenies"… I am so enveloped in "save the planet or we die – duh" that it's … truly weird to read about this alien mindset, valuing money – and, yes, I understand, jobs, but primarily money – far above the idea that … well, if you cut down all the trees, it will be hard to still be cutting down trees in five years, because … they will all have been cut down. Even just the simple enjoyment of the beauty of nature – meh. Let's go for a lunar landscape – people like the moon.

Great sense of humor which for some reason I didn't expect – Bobby is a terrific character, funny without being comic relief. And the fact that a lot of the book is funny doesn't mean that the rest of it isn't heartbreaking. From the general poverty and misery of so many and rampant alcoholism, to the very specific pain of Kate with her trauma (physical and in memory), the disappearances she's investigating, to the wounded yearling moose being chewed on alive by a wolverine.

I enjoyed listening to the cadences of the names. Chick Noyukpuk, the Billiken Bullet; the Kanuyaq River; Niniltna; etc. And the other names – the Lost Chance Creek, the Lost Wife Mine, Squaw Candy Creek…. It all adds to the atmosphere.

Mutt's awesome and I want one. show less

Alaskan mystery!

I tell you, I literally breathed the cold of the mountain air, I heard the grand silence, and I felt Aleut woman Kate Shugak’s dismay, her hurt, and importantly her love for Alaska and it’s wilderness.
The National Park she lives in covers twenty million acres. A ranger has been missing for six weeks, and an FBI agent who was strangely investigating the disappearance, for two.
Kate, a former District Attorney Investigator, now doing private consulting, has been called to follow up on these disappearances. She’s from the area, she’s whip smart, and has a way of cutting through to the truth.
Only Kate doesn’t want to do it. She lives out in the wilderness with her wolf dog Mutt, her top of the line Arctic Cat show more machine, and her injuries from a previous case. We’re not sure what it was but her throat was cut. She has an unsightly scar and a hoarse voice.
What she does know is that the two missing are two men she’d worked with before. Where are they? And are her family involved?
A great start to a new adventure series set in the wilds of Alaska where the only way in is plane or up a disused railway track.
A Park full of interesting characters, from her astute grandmother, various cousins, old time miners, to a couple of drunken dimwits.
I was living the thrill, and the despair of it all!

An Aria & Aries ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher. show less

If you're a fan of Sue Grafton's feisty Kinsey Millhone, you'll know Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak already. I like her well enough, but I'm not sure that in spite of the fact that she didn't exist before, anyone really had to invent her.

The setting, though, is wonderfully exotic: Alaska is certainly a foreign land to me, and I thoroughly enjoyed encountering a whole new way of life and the lexicon that goes with it.

The investigation can seem glacially slow at times, as much Alaskan background and research is delivered between times, but that's OK - and perhaps now that #1 in the series has done this job, #2 etc can get moving in what will soon be more familiar territory.

A Cold Day for Murder is the first book in the Kate Shugak series and I've found myself a new series that I want to read. This book had everything I like about a mystery book, engaging characters, fabulous milieu, and an interesting mystery.

Kate Shugak almost died on a mission and after that did she quit her job, but when this case lands on her doorstep does she decide to try to find the ranger and the detective who gone missing. She had a personal relationship with the detective in questions so finding him is personal for her. But, they have both been gone for weeks and the weather is cold so the chances of finding one of them or both are slim.

The book isn't especially long, but I quite liked this little mystery. What I really loved show more about this book was the setting. The waste wilderness of Alaska, with small towns, where everyone knows each other. The mystery in itself was interesting as well and I have to admit that I did not see the ending coming until Kate herself started to see where it was all leading to. I quite liked learning more about Kate and her family and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the books in the series to see what the future will bring for Kate.

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review! show less

Surprisingly intense for a book that's so short. I loved the glimpse into a society that's foreign to me--that's one of the strengths of the mystery genre and it worked well here.

Former District Attorney Investigator, Kate Shugak, retired after having her throat cut while capturing a serial killer. Both physically and emotionally scarred she now lives alone on her 160 acre homestead in Alaska. When a rookie park ranger and son of a congressmen goes missing in a huge wilderness area known as the “Park” an investigator and friend of Kate's is sent to find him and now he's missing too. Former lover and boss, Jack Morgan, convinces her to go looking for the missing men because Kate's Aleut family lives in the “Park” and she might be able to use that to her advantage in hunting for the missing men. Before long she discovers some of her extended family members may be involved in the disappearance.

Kate is a show more well done character battling the memories and nightmares of the tragedy of her last investigation for the DA's office. The author does a really great job of character development and how Kate balances between the two worlds of her former Anchorage life and her Native Alaskan heritage. Every dog lover will fall for Mutt, Kate's half husky, half wolf dog. Alaska is the show here much the way Minnesota is in the Cork O'Connor series. The sparse frozen land and native culture is a character in itself.

This was a well written story set in a fascinating setting. Kate is a strong character and a no-nonsense problem solver. It's an intriguing and enjoyable introduction to series and I plan to read more. show less